FPO 43 during WW2
This is a registered cover from the UK to Canada dated 22/10/43. The stamps are cancelled with an FPO 650 date stamp as used by the Candian Overseas Postal Depot in Manchester. What I cannot find anyting about is the FPO 43 registration label which also has the FPO 650 dater. I am assuming that the 43 is an FPO number.
The only info on the web seems to say that FPO 43 was used in the Middle east around 1940-42. The only books I have are about the postmarks used by Canadian forces and do not mention FPO 43. I can only speculate the these labels were going "spare" and the C.O.P.D. was using them up to save waste.
Has anyone any info re FPO 43.
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Mike thanks for the comment and a Happy New Year. I did wonder about something like that explaination but I then thought that no one would go to the bother / difficulty of printing a serial number that would have to be different for each label and discounted the idea. I also thought that the serial number was usually written by hand in the blank space.
Since I read your reply I had a more general search on the internet and found
https://bnaps.org/hhl/newsletters/tra/tra-1998-04-w062.pdf
where figure 9 shows a very similar label used in WWI and it also appears that the serial number were printed. You learn something each day !!!
I am still slightly puzzled why the serial number is only 43 in October I would have thought that the COPD would have handled more registered mail. Did the number only go to 100 or 1000 and was then reset to 1
I do not have access to that book - I hope you can find out more info when you have time. A definitive answer must be out there somewhere.
John